Race Relations and the Trayvon Martin Case

The last time I checked, I still lived in the United States of America, but it doesn’t seem like it lately. The country has lost its’ collective mind.

When did we become a country of such uptight crybabies?

My god, are we adults or a nation of children?

“Mommy, so and so said a word I don’t like. They hurt my feelings!”

Boo-freaking-hoo!

First, there’s the Paula Deen incident. Her empire is being torn asunder because of something she said 30 years ago.

Does it make you feel better to destroy the career of a woman in her late 50s? Does it make you feel powerful?

Yes, she has a right to say what she wants to, and people have a right to react to it, and boycott her products and shows. Food Network has the right to fire her for any reason, though they didn’t technically fire her, they just didn’t renew her contract.

Companies have been dropping her because she is now radioactive, bad for business.

All because of something she said back in the 70’s or 80’s?

Why don’t we have this same reaction to Bill Ayers, a college professor now, but bombed police stations and the US capitol building during the 60’s, yet no one has been trying to destroy his career.

In what kind of world can a white woman sue another white woman over racial discrimination/insensitivity? What we have here is a case of a trial lawyer sniffing around for a payday. I know there are allegations of sexual harassment, and I think that’s how this whole thing started, but Jackson’s attorney probably felt they could get more money if they dragged Paula Deen into it, given her empire.

Jackson’s attorney threatened to destroy her if she didn’t comply, and that’s exactly what he is doing.

Martha Stewart was brought up on charges of insider trading, for which she was not convicted. She was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of an agency proceeding, and making false statements to federal investigators, and sentenced to five months.

But would it surprise you to learn that it isn’t illegal for Congress to engage in insider trading?

They had made law that they could not use their knowledge to act on trading securities, also known as insider trading. Earlier this year, they quietly undid that law, and the media ignored it.

Just more evidence that we, the little people are playing against a stacked deck.

We are being forced into government run health insurance exchanges, while Congress is quickly trying to figure out how to stop it from applying to them.

In the past century, the government has gone from being of the people to being the Aristocracy.

But I didn’t start writing to rail against the government.

In the wake of the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case, there are a lot of people who are not happy with the outcome.

I understand that blacks feel that they are not getting justice, but does that give you the right to riot and destroy, to hurt others? Fortunately, this has been very limited in scope.

The fact of the matter is that the prosecution had no case.

What happened was a tragedy. I think that both were just as responsible for the tragedy that happened. According to Zimmerman, Martin jumped out of the bushes at him. Eyewitness accounts put Martin on top of Zimmerman, beating him.

If what Rachel Jeantel said on Piers Morgan is right, Martin may have been afraid Zimmerman was a gay rapist, and wanted to get the jump on him before Zimmerman could get him.

I think it comes down to a double case of mistaken intentions. Zimmerman was afraid that Martin was one of those responsible for the vandalism going on in his neighborhood, while Martin may have thought Zimmerman wanted to rape him, but we will never know for a fact.

To hear the media play it, Martin was armed only with a bag of Skittles, but how was Zimmerman supposed to know that?

Should Zimmerman have followed him? No. In cases like this, it is always best just to listen to what you are being told and not follow, but it sounds like Zimmerman was frustrated with criminals getting away with vandalizing his neighborhood. After all, that’s why the neighborhood watch was formed, wasn’t it?

(On further investigation, the police had been called to that community a whopping 402 times from early 2011 to the evening of the shooting in 2012. There were eight burglaries, nine thefts and one shooting within the community, along with dozens of attempted break-ins)

NBC went further and edited the 911 tape to make it sound like Zimmerman was racially profiling Martin when, in fact, he was responding to a question that he was asked by the 911 dispatcher.

I’m not suggesting that Trayvon Martin was a criminal. Zimmerman didn’t know who he was, and they were both in the wrong place at the wrong time.

However, the right wing media likes to characterize Martin as some sort of thug. “He smoked pot!”

OMG, the world is ending! Most teenagers have smoked pot at one time or another. I know I did, but pot doesn’t tend to make one aggressive.

He had been suspended from school three times. Yes, for missing school, being late, and having a baggie that had pot residue in it. Not actual pot, but residue.

That’s great irony there. You miss school, so they suspend you and force you to miss school.

I would say that Martin was not the criminal some people were trying to make him out to be, but a typical teenager. Teenagers lack judgment, and sometimes do stupid and silly things.

Justice is a funny thing. Zimmerman, after being acquitted, feels he got justice, while the black community feels they didn’t. If Zimmerman had been found guilty, the roles would be reversed.

Jesse Jackson came out earlier this week and said that the trial was rigged, because they didn’t have a jury of Trayvon Martin’s peers. Well, Mr. Jackson, in this system that we have, the accused gets a jury of his peers, not the victim.

And of course, being fed into a frenzy by the media, Zimmerman was convicted in the court of public opinion. His life, nor his family’s lives will ever be the same. By all reports, Zimmerman himself has had to go into hiding.

What’s being forgotten in all of this is that a young man’s life was snuffed out because of bad judgment by both parties. Whenever a young person dies, it is always a tragedy. Who knows what Trayvon Martin may have gone on to accomplish in his life.

Another story that is being ignored by the nation media is the murder of a 13 year old boy by his neighbor, because the neighbor thought the boy had stolen his shotguns.

76 year old John Henry Spooner shot and killed 13 year old neighbor Darius Simmons last year in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At point blank range, Spooner drew his gun and fatally shot Simmons. In contrast to the Zimmerman case, this is a case where an old man decided he was going to be judge, jury and executioner.

But I haven’t heard much of this story in the news.

While these sorts of things do nothing for race relations in this country, sadly black on black crime is virtually ignored. Chicago is more or less a war zone. The same goes for parts of Los Angeles.

Why? Why does it have to be this way?

Why do blacks tend to distrust whites and whites tend to distrust blacks?

I understand the history between these two races in this country, but while some of my ancestors may or may not have owned slaves, I have never owned a slave in my life, nor would I want to. I refuse to feel guilty for an institution that I had no part of, just because I’m white. Well, mostly white.

As a result of this history, though, the two races have essentially segregated into separate communities.

Take Portland, where I live for example. Blacks tend to live on the north, northeastern side of town, while whites tend to live in the burbs.

We don’t mingle enough. We don’t make an effort to understand each other, and I think if we did, we would find that we have more in common with each other than differences.

Skin color is superficial. It’s what’s inside that matters, but we don’t take the time to find out what’s inside each other.

There are hateful, racist people in the world, but it isn’t illegal to hate. It isn’t illegal to call someone the “N” word. It becomes illegal when a person acts on that hatred. Did George Zimmerman act because of hatred? Unfortunately, he’s the only one who truly knows if he did or not.

A lot has been made over the use of the “N” word and the use of the word “cracka”. A lot of it comes from the assumption by some on the left and the talking heads over at MSNBC that if you are white, you are racist by nature, and only whites can be racist.

So, by their contention, the use of the word “cracka” isn’t racial, even though it is used to generally refer to white people. The Urban Dictionary defines it as a word used to insult white people. That’s okay, though. The word doesn’t have the power over me that its opposite has held over blacks, which is sad that they let a stupid word have so much power over them.

It’s sad that we can’t see each other as people, struggling to survive in this cold, cruel world. Instead, we have to resort to name calling and finger pointing.

I feel for the parents of both of the victims of these fatal shootings, and make no mistake, both Martin and Zimmerman were victims of circumstances, not “God’s plan” for him, as Zimmerman puts it. While I still believe that the prosecution had no case against Zimmerman, the man makes me sick to my stomach.

People tend to invoke God to justify their actions. God commanded that thou shalt not kill, so, somehow I doubt that God willed you to shoot and kill Trayvon Martin.

At the very least, neither Trayvon nor Darius have to deal with this garbage anymore.

Can we please stop trying to insult and degrade each other, and just learn, as Rodney King once put it, to get along?